Page 327 of A King's Oath

“It is located inside the floor, here,” he pointed under the table. “Come.” He took her hand and kneeled with her. Avantika stared in wonderment as he opened an invisible flap in the seamless flooring, outlining the marking to look for the edge.

“Inside, here,” he pointed to a safe that lit up automatically. “This safe will only open with this key, one of the configured fingerprints and a password. Right now Papa’s, mine and Rajmata’s prints are registered and only we know the password. Give me your right hand.”

“What? You are adding my fingerprint to it?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t be serious! We just got married.”

“Give me your hand, Ava,” he grabbed her hand and tugged her down until her thumb was pressed on the reader. It beeped and Samarth punched in a password on the keypad. He scanned her fingerprint again, it beeped, and he punched in the numbers again. It went on for two more rounds and finally, a different beep sounded.

“Alright, here’s the password — 7B8E9A. For the alphabets, use the guide of letters under each number. If you ever saw those old Nokia phones, it’s like that.”

“Oh… like press number 1 two times to get B?”

“Exactly. Here,” he fed in the digits and she observed. The safe beeped this time and a loud noise alert sounded. Samarth turned the lever and pulled it open.

She wasn’t as stupid as to expect some treasure chest inside it but the items in there were grossly underwhelming. A carved wooden box atop some papers. He picked up the box and set it out on the floor between them.

“This box contains the Raj Sinh Mohar of Nawanagar. Our seal. The one who possesses this and the deed papers has the first claim to the throne of Nawanagar.”

He held up a small gold seal. She took it in her palm and instantly tightened her grip. It was heavy.

“There are also our scriptures and family tree dating back 800 years,” he showed her, the papers well-maintained even if they were yellowed with age and falling apart at the edges.

“Why are you showing me all this?”

“If ever a time comes when Brahmi must inherit, get these and declare her the next queen of Nawanagar. The bill will get passed in a few months…”

“Wait, you mean… if something happens to you?”

“Yes.”

“You know we got married yesterday, right?”

“What’s that got to do with this?”

“I won’t kill you so soon.”

He laughed.

“Alright, you got the gist. What’s the password?” He began to pack everything up and restore the objects inside the safe.

“7B something A… why is it so complicated? Couldn't it be Sharan’s mosquito’s birthday or something?”

“It’s not complicated.” Samarth thrust the safe door shut, closed the flap in the floor and got to his feet. “It’s the three classes we were together in school. 7th B, 8th E, 9th A.”

She stilled, halfway up. He took her hands and pulled her the rest of the way.

“What?” His knuckles stroked her cheek.

“Tell me you changed this password today to impress me.”

He smirked, that ‘one eyebrow and one side of the mouth raised’ smirk. Her face fell into his chest, shaking — “You can’t do this to me!”

“Do what?”

“Eat sev on poha every day for eight years, have this stupid password, keep my brooch and all!”

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